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“And here I am, its 2010 and I’m for the first time in Baku, Azerbaijan. Intellectuals of Azerbaijan, all Azerbaijanis have gathered around a big table. During the last twenty years Baku ceased to be a cosmopolitan city,” writes Russian journalist Tatyana Sharbina in the article published in “Moscow News” newspaper’s website.

The author notes that as she was a guest in Baku they started to ask her questions. The first question was about what she thinks about the Armenians. “In Moscow, before leaving I was warned not to utter a single word about Armenia and I didn’t intend either,” states Sharbina adding that her answer to the question was “nothing” to be able to get away from the topic, especially when she treats different people in different ways, including the Armenians.

However, as the author notes, her answer only provoked a wave of tension. “So, you are on Armenians side?” “No, I don’t belong to any of the sides. I’m Russian, Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict is far from me,” answered the journalist.

After that, the Azerbaijanis started to tell their guest eagerly “what kind of things they (the Armenians, ed.) did.” The journalist noted that she also knew about the massacres of the Armenians in Sumgait and suggested to change the topic. However, the answer from Azerbaijani side was the following; “They (the Armenians, ed.) washed your brains. They captured the whole Russian television”. Sharbina replied, she doesn’t watch TV, after which she was told that “Armenia is Western Azerbaijan, and the Soviet Union created Armenia in order to destroy Azerbaijan.”

“I clearly realized that if I started speaking about the ancient history of Armenia, they would assume that I was an Armenian spy. I didn’t want that to happen as I had to stay in Azerbaijan a few more days. I replied quite sharply that I didn’t want to speak about Armenia and started to praise food; tolma, dyushbara, kutaby, pilaf with dried fruit and eat with sheer appetite,” adds Sharbina.

“Did you know that the Armenians stole our Tolma? And its name as well, which is outrageous!” the Azerbaijanis declared.
The journalist answered that she didn’t know because she hadn’t been to Armenia.

“I hardly kept myself from saying that the Armenians started to cook Tolma from the times when there was no such country as Azerbaijan. However, we came to the dessert, to Baklava observing that “it is a native Azerbaijani dish and should be declared such, as the Armenians messed it up as well.” I burst out telling them that baklava (which I am fond of) is known from the 8th century,” writes the author.

Tatyana Sharbina also stated, “Pie with chopped nuts and sugar impregnation was firstly cooked by the chef of Sultan in Minor Asia (Turkey didn’t exist at that time and I’m not even speaking about Azerbaijan) and thin sheets soaked in honey were first made by the Greeks. Baklava is a Greek dish! One historian in Turkey told me that Ancient Greece is a myth and in the reality it was Turkey. I, being an ancient Greek nationalist, got angry.”

As it is stated in the article, nowadays the ethnic/confessional identity is exaggerated and artificially enriched, while professional civic and intellectual identity is emasculated. “Everyone has a reason to hate, defend or attack. I’m not ready to condemn anyone until my personal identity is not hurt, which first of all gets hurt by the hatred and insidious lie,” Sharbina concludes.